Funny Shakespeare?!

Whenever high school teachers announced that we were going to be reading Shakespeare, I got upset because Shakespeare plays that I read never had happy endings since they were tragedies. Sometimes, I wouldn’t even want to talk them because all we just read the plays line by line and memorize them so we can act. But, Twelfth Night by Shakespeare was a different experience.

Twelfth Night was a comedy and I barely knew its plot before watching it. Surprisedly, I picked up the plot as the play went along. Unlike most Shakespeare plays, where often the mood of the scenes would be aggressive and serious, Twelfth Night’s scenes were very goofy throughout the entire play. The most serious scene was when Malvolio, the head servant, was tied to a chair in the dark room but it didn’t even seem as serious as one would expect it to be.

The stage wasn’t like the ones I saw before while watching traditional plays where the stage would be in the front and audience in the back watching the show like how we did in the Fall for Dance Festival. But, I was thrilled to see a real Shakespeare Stage and instantly remembered how we discussed in my acting class that it would be challenging to act in a stage like that. I learned that Shakespeare’s stage was hard for actors to work with because they have to work with multiple angles and blocking movements. However, it seemed like the actors of the Twelfth Night adapted to the stage very well. Also, it felt they lived there because they knew all the entrances and exits. There were no backstage and backstage crews, instead the actors themselves changed stage designs and props.

Moreover, this was my first time watching a play/musical where the actors themselves sang and played instruments. I think it added a genuine feeling to my experience of watching the play. I just felt special knowing that the play I was watching had actors with talent in not just acting, but also singing and playing different instruments.

Besides, the music and improvisation done by the actors made the Shakespearean experience exciting and enjoyable. The actors themselves made the audience feel at home. I observed some actors were reaching out to the young middle school students and asking them for feedbacks on the show. The actors were also doing funny dances during the intermission. While doing multiple angles, many of the actors broke the fourth wall. Often, breaking the fourth comes off as awkward but in the play, it was done smoothly and kept the audience engaged.

Going back to the stage, it was designed very sophistically yet looked so simplistic. The actors only used couple of boxes, chairs, a table and ropes throughout the whole play as their props. They would set their stage in a diagonal way so they weren’t putting their backs on the audience. It was interesting how the actors themselves were part of the audience. Every time the actions exited the scene, they would exit without even interrupting the scene and come to their seats by the corner and observe the play just like an audience member would.

Sadly, that was our last outing for the semester. But, I am glad that I was able to enjoy Shakespeare with all my friends.